Angel Wings Mushroom

Angel Wings (Pleurocybella porrigens) are one of my favorite wild mushrooms, if nothing else just for their beauty. There’s something surreal about walking through a lush green forest, dampened by a recent rain, and suddenly spotting blotches of celestial white against the vibrancy of a moss colored tree. Just simply beautiful.

But Angel Wings have other characteristics of beauty as well. They taste wonderful! But be careful when you clean them, as they are very delicate and fragile.

How To Identify Angel Wings Wild Mushrooms

Grow in the Fall on rotting conifers throughout the Pacific Northwest and other Northern regions

Grow in a shelflike pattern on trees, stumps, or logs

Are bright white in color when fresh

The cap is small, only 1″ – 2.5″ wide, and have a fan-shape to them, though occasionally you may find one over 4″ wide

They don’t have a stalk, or if they do, it is just a stubby little base

They have gills which are white and close together which run down their stubby base (if present)

They do not have a veil, ring, or volva

Spores are white

They look a lot like a very white, small Oyster Mushroom, but are much more delicate and thin. They are easy to find, easy to identify, and easy to harvest. Just make sure you are able to 100% identify them so as to avoid any form of potential mushroom poisoning.

Edibility of Angel Wings Wild Mushrooms

Please make the effort to learn this mushroom. It is a wonderful gourmet treat any day of the week! They are very mild, have a very clean aroma, almost like the smell of moss, and are slightly sweet. They’re fantastic sauteed in butter with a little salt and pepper.

But as with all wild edibles, be wise and don’t eat large quantities at a time. Wild mushrooms, even those long proven to be edible, can cause physical distress and, in rare situations, physical harm/death.

How to Preserve Angel Wings Wild Mushrooms

Angle Wings are too delicate to dry, but I have found that if you saute them in butter and then freeze them, they are just as good thawed and recooked as fresh. In fact, the mossy sweetness seems to come out more during the freezing for some reason. They are exceptional scrambled up with some eggs this way.

I found what I believe to be angel wings near Chicago over the past two days (Sept 16-17). I found three different spots in the same general area. Two of them were growing on fallen logs that were pretty far along the decomposition process. The third grouping was strange because it was growing near the base of a dying (oak?) tree. I was looking for maitake and at first I thought that’s what it was. The mushrooms were mostly at the base but growing up the tree a few feet as well. All of the mushrooms were very wet despite no rain in the past week or so. I’m not planning on eating them but I’m very interested in them because they don’t seem to follow the usual tendency of growing on coniferous wood. The area I’m in is almost 100% deciduous, but I feel somewhat confident that they are not oysters. They look and feel more like the descriptions and pictures of angel wings. Anybody know of a variant that grows in deciduous woods but looks decidedly like angel wings as opposed to oysters or creps?

Interesting! I’d been researching a lot into wild mushrooms in the past few years, intent to become a forager of all manner of medicinal and edible plants and fungi, and I’d been hearing horror stories from a number of other learning foragers… you see Angel’s Wing everywhere in lists of “toxic fungi easily confused for edible ones”. The most lenient appraisal I’d heard of it was that it was highly suspect, likely to cause allergic reactions, etc, etc. Well, before now that is. I don’t think I’ll be so leery of trying a bit of this species from now on.

I must say, though, the recency of the negative side effects of eating these stirs up the thought in me that maybe the toxicity in Japan might not be the mushroom itself, but possibly be a contamination? It happens sometimes with oyster mushrooms as well that have been grown as bioremediators in heavy metal and toxic chemical spill areas, and oysters certainly aren’t poisonous by themselves. It would explain why plenty of people eating the mushroom in different parts of the world have no trouble, but people in a certain country are being affected (and it may end up being just the Angel Wings harvested from a certain contaminated area).

Yes. I will agree with you that anything grown in a contaminated area can be effected. I was buying papua newguinea coffee beans grown in New Guinea. New Guinea is south of Japan and the radiation ruined my coffee. I noticed the difference in my health, so I stopped drinking it immediately. Health issues disappeared.

On the contrary they used sunflowers growing on styrofoam beds floating in the water, their roots dangling in the water to clean up the radiation after Chernobyl. That’s pretty powerful stuff. But I wouldn’t be crazy enough to eat the sunflower seeds.

You do realize that someone might read this, pick these mushrooms, and get VERY sick right? You have a series of people in the comment section warning you about them and because you have never personally had a bad reaction you are just brushing them off, assuming without any research that the Japanese version is different. My understanding is that anyone with weak kidney’s or liver (elderly, children, sick people) could be seriously poisoned by this mushroom, because there are toxins in it that healthy people can filter out. I’m not a mycologist, I only know what I read, and the literature is vague at best most of the time. But I don’t have to read far to see that responsible foragers are extremely cautious, even uncomfortable, about giving online advice. It’s easy to put the responsibility on others- take a bit more for yourself before insisting that other people won’t get sick. How would you feel if someone’s child had to go to the emergency room? The only proper response to such warnings is- “I really don’t know, always consult an expert, be careful!” OR “I will post info proving that it is safe to eat if you have id’d it properly.”

I will continue my research and this is one of those interesting aspects of both the internet and of mushrooming: misinformation does in fact exist. Just because something is written in a book does not make it truthful either. Honest mistakes can be made. I do not claim this top ten video to be accurate, and I do not claim it to be fraudulent either.

They are known to have been responsible for at least 18 deaths in Japan. They contain an amino acid that some people are unable to break down in their kidneys or liver. The unbroken down amino acid can cross the blood brain barrier and causes neurological symptoms not unlike acute motor neurone disease. Is it worth risking your life?

I was looking for a good site to send to a friend for ID of Angel Wings. This worked great! I’ve picked these on and off for years. Usually I have a huge bag of Chanterelles so I don’t bother with these. However, over the years, I’ve found that mushroom soups are better the more varieties of mushrooms you add. I collected about 2 pounds of these recently and added them to a Hungarian mushroom soup with 3 pounds of chanterelles. I loosely based it on the recipe from Rainforest Mushroom Company. They have some great recipes on their site! I’m eating the soup now and it’s heavenly!

Well hello from Maine,
First just let me say, I love your website. I was wondering if you might be able to tell me anything about chestnut mushrooms? I found a cluster of what I believe to be them, last week. When I went back this week, there were tons more. I know if they are the chestnut mushroom, this will be a great find. The ones I found have a chestnut colored cap with a white film on it that rubs off. The stem is off white and the spore print is kind of a brownish purple if you will. Any info on these would be greatly appreciated.

I pick many of these every year as they are easy to identify and taste excellent. I wash mine then pat dry on towels then transfer them to dry towels and let them sit overnight to dry a little. Then the next day dice them up and saute them in sesame oil. They take on the sesame taste but combined with the slightly sweet earthy flavor. Then I freeze them in small containers and use them in everything from my morning omelets, adding to soups and stews to using them as a side during dinner. I love them, they are my favorite wild mushroom that I have access to here in the North Coast area of British Columbia.

Pic them up this morning on the stump in central PA. Smells like fish. Saute it with onions,
smell is gone. Already ate them with mr. Johnny Walker, a good friend of my. Let you know tomorrow,
how the things are (with any luck)…

I enjoy angel wing mushrooms. Great pictures and descriptions on how to find them and where. I enjoy cooking them with or without condiments. They taste good cooked plain. They go good in eggs, or i love to put them into a vegetable medley, i saute, including spinach and cabbage and kale, with some oyster sauce, other veggies also.

One more poisoning case has recently been reported in Japan. A 20-year-old man who has no kidney disorder was taken to the hospital with acute encephalopathy on 30th Sep 2014. He is getting better in the hospital and now in stable condition. The authority rewarrned people not to consume the mushroom even if they have no kidney syndrome.

The regionality of angel wings poisoning is not clear. It has been suggested that the poisoning outbreak on 2004 in Japan is not caused by transformation or mutation of mushroom rather than by a change of the reporting criteria regarding acute encephalopathy. In 2003, the infectious disease control law in Japan was amended that medical institutions were obligated to report acute encephalopathy cases to authorities. (The amendment was conducted to counter with SARS pandemic and anthrax terrorism which were problems around that time.)

Well, next time I’m in Japan and stumble across some Angel Wings, I’ll be sure not to pick and eat them. When in Oregon and Washington however, I will enjoy them with butter every time I find them. Thanks for the comment hartack.

the angel wings in Japan must be different from the ones in the PNW – I have eaten angel wings for years here and have had no adverse reactions. And, yes, sometimes in large quantities at once because dredged in flour and fried they are like little mushroom chips. You can’t eat just one

I harvested about 2 pounds of angel wings today in Wrangell, Alaska and when i got home i washed them lightly and placed them in my dehydrator as i do with a few other mushrooms i pick and they started turning black is that ok or are they not any good anymore I have never had this happen with other mushrooms before

Hmmm…I’ve never tried to dry them before. Turning black doesn’t sound very appetizing. Sorry to hear that. Try freezing the rest. They keep very well in the freezer, and smell intoxicating when you open them up!

Picked about 3 pounds this week end on my property near Cadillac MI. Brought about a pound home 2 weeks ago and dried them. They are very early this year, going back up next week end and hope to find more. At this rate, I’ll have enough to last the winter just in time for the oyster mushrooms.

[...] sign I had that it was going to be a good day was this beautiful flush of oysters, of the white “angel’s wing” variety, just across the road from our dining hall. In fact, it was one of several flushes of [...]

[...] enough berries and peas to nibble. On the way back we found more mushrooms. This time there were Angel Wings (they looked like oysters to me). Our host was a bit worried about us eating those. She actually [...]

It should be noted that a percentage of people are allergic to the Angel Wing mushrooms and while there have been no reported deaths in the U.S. there have been 59 cases of people getting sick and 18 fatalities related to consumption of this species in Japan. All patients were elderly and it has been hypotesized that the deaths were related to consumptions of large amounts and compromised kidney function in the unfortunate victims (http://www.namyco.org/publications/mcilvainea/v20/pleurocybella_toxin.html).

I found these mushrooms as described by the author (quite delicious with a slightly sweet aroma and sweet mossy taste), however my partner experienced quite significant GI cramps for 12 hours commencing within an hour or so of our consumption. Based upon her reaction, I would highly recommend eating only a small test amount first to see how you react. This is good basic advice when eating any new species you haven’t consumed before.

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I'm Jothan Yeager and I am The Bald Gourmet. After years of experimenting in my kitchen, creating delicious food and eating at amazing places around the world, I wanted a place to share my experiences with everyone. Thus the Bald Gourmet was born. I hope to open the doors of great food and great cooking to you, to inspire you to reach beyond prepared boxed meals, and to teach you of a world of deliciousness that has brought joy to me and those around me. Please enjoy the adventure which is The Bald Gourmet and share it with those you love.